Milwaukee ends the road trip 1-3
The Milwaukee Bucks ended a bitterly disappointing road trip with another loss to the San Antonio Spurs, losing 118-144. Giannis led Milwaukee with 35 points and 14 rebounds, while Victor Wembanyama dominated for the Spurs with 30 points, 14 rebounds, and six blocks.
Game Recap
Wemby opened the game with two ridiculous blocks on Giannis in what was a truly crazy 9-2 start to the game for the Spurs. The Bucks looked completely out of sorts, taking early, out-of-rhythm shots leading to runouts on the other end. Then the Bucks finally slowed down a tad and got going behind buckets from AJax, Giannis, Dame, and Khris, evening the score at 21. Middleton kept the Bucks afloat with a few more crucial jumpers (10 points in the quarter!), and the score was tied at 35 at the end of one.
Both teams went blow for blow to open the second. A five-point burst from Pat Connaughton proved huge in keeping Milwaukee close. Scoring slowed down from both teams significantly in the second, but Connaughton again made some awesome plays off the pick-and-roll to keep the scoreboard moving. Dame and Giannis got involved once again to end the quarter and give the Bucks the lead, but Milwaukee couldn’t contain Wemby either. Bucks led 71-70 at half. As our Riley Feldmann said on Playback, “first team to play defence wins.”
Well… the third-quarter Bucks returned for this one, unable to inbound the basketball, leading to a transition Wemby three. AJax’s presence on the court allowed Wemby to roam, which was an important note from this game. Jackson was a -22 in his minutes tonight. Prince wasn’t helping either, trying to do way too much when he caught the ball. Wemby continued to slaughter the Bucks, even knocking in a one-legged three-point runner. Spurs up 115-101 after winning the quarter 45-30.
The Bucks couldn’t make up much ground in the opening minutes of the final frame. The Spurs pushed the lead out to 19 early, and the Bucks just could not string scores and stops together. Just about everyone from San Antonio was making everything, but the most entertaining part of the game was Giannis getting into a verbal scuffle with Chris Paul. Ah well, that road trip sucked.
Stat That Stood Out
Interestingly, the Bucks didn’t lose the turnover count that badly (10-4), but San Antonio absolutely destroyed Milwaukee on fast-break points (28-6). This is evidence of the Bucks’ lackadaisical transition defence and inability to match up effectively.
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